Monthly Archives: May 2014

Ever since we got back from Europe, Banana has insisted on trying to get our attention every second we are home. If we are up walking around, he follows us – “meow meow meow” – until we sit down. When we close the door at night (we typically try to make the bedroom a furr-free zone by not letting him in), he cries like a baby and scratches on the door and sticks his paws under the door for hours – one time it was ALL NIGHT LONG. This is not normal for him. He obviously missed us while we were gone and is trying to make up for lost time. It is driving us crazy!!

But, when we are sitting down, he is as content as ever to snuggle or just watch us as we do whatever we are doing – as long as we are not up moving around or behind closed doors where he can’t see us. I know that he will start calming down soon once he realizes we are actually staying home (for now). Meanwhile, I try to remind myself that he is only doing this because he loves us and wants to spend time with us so badly, which is pretty cute. I really do love my chubby kitty!

To see the rest of my posts in the Lazy Days with Banana series, click here!

We got back from Charleston very, very early yesterday morning on the train. We took a really long nap when we got home and started moving around noon – unpacking, cleaning, reading, etc. After running some errands, we went to see the new X-Men movie, and then we went to bed early. It probably wasn’t the most exciting Memorial Day, but we were making up for having a very exciting past few weeks! I love traveling and being busy, but it will be nice to have a few weeks at home with a bit more down time than usual. Hopefully, that means I can work more on these goals!

Today we are in Charleston, SC exploring this cute city with our friends Kaitlin and Erik and eating amazing Southern food. We arrived Friday morning, and we head back home tonight on the over-night train, so I pre-wrote this post. I’ve never done that for a TSC post before, so we will see how it goes! Seems weird to write what you will be “currently” doing in the future…. ;)

Last August, I read a blog that linked to a certain YouTube channel – My Housewife Life. I clicked the link and watched a video, then another video, then another. Then I realized that this same vlogger had two other channels (Organized Like Jen and TheBusyBeeBuzz). I clicked over to those channels and started watching more and more videos (clearly I was not busy that day). Then I subscribed to all three channels. This was the first time I had ever really spent much time on YouTube other than the occasional binge watching of funny videos with my friends or watching a music video every now and then. I had no idea that there were so many vloggers out there that regularly post on their own channels and create good content – some of them even do it as their full-time job!

After watching all of Jen’s videos religiously for about couple of months, I heard her recommend another YouTube channel. So I went over to that channel, watched some videos, and subscribed. Then that vlogger proceeded to recommend a few other vloggers who recommended other vloggers and so on.

This is how I became addicted to YouTube.

It’s probably not a good thing to add another time-waster into my life, but just like with TV, I try to make sure I’m doing something else productive while watching such as getting ready for the day or folding laundry or working on a Project Life album.

I thought it would be fun today for me to share my favorite YouTube channels. I have many that I enjoy watching occasionally, but these are the channels that I tune into every single time they post a video.

1. My Housewife Life – Mentioned above, this was my first YouTube video that I subscribed to. On this channel, she posts vlogs of her everyday life with her husband Don and puppy Winnie. They do all kinds of fun things like travel, cook great meals, host fabulous parties, etc.

2. EssieButton – This is a beauty channel. I did not know I was interested in beauty talk until I started watching Estee’s channel. She makes it really interesting, and she is absolutely hilarious.

3. Essie Button Vlogs – This is the vlog channel of Estee of EssieButton (see #2). I really enjoy watching her everday life with her boyfriend Aslan and dog Reggie. They live in London, so that makes it particularly interesting for me.

4. itsJudyLife – This is another vlog-style channel. Judy and her husband live in Seattle and have twin girls and another toddler. They literally vlog every single day of their lives, so I don’t actually watch every video they post, but I do enjoy watching many of them! It’s neat to see a glimpse into the lives of young parents.

5. Savannah K. Wallace – Savannah is a blogger over at Maiedae. She posts mostly beauty videos, but she also posts videos about being a new mom and about other types of lifestyle products.

6. missglamorazzi – Ingrid’s main focus is beauty. I love her videos because she is funny, her videos are so nicely edited, and she is just too cute!

Hello! Happy Monday! I hope that everyone’s week is starting out nicely. So far, mine has been good, but it’s sure hard to switch out of vacation mode! At least it’s a short week – my company gives us a 4 day weekend for Memorial Day starting with Friday.

Since we are packing up again and heading to Charleston this Thursday, I’m not going to set many goals this week. I’m hoping to get back on track after Memorial Day!

In case you are new here, each week I share goals that I would like to achieve in the week ahead and discuss my progress on last week’s goals by linking up with The Nectar Collective and sharing a Weekly Wishes post. At the beginning of each month, I post goals for the month rather than just for the week.

And, just like that, we are back from Europe! We are tired but so happy to have experienced such an amazing trip together. Both London and Paris are fantastic cities to explore, and Daniel and I both feel like we came back more educated about the history and culture of these cities than we expected to. At some point soon, I will be posting about the trip, and I will have lots of pictures to share at that time!

Currently…

Reading Bittersweet: Thoughts on Change, Grace, and Learning the Hard Way. I’m really enjoying this one so far! I finished Night Film on my trip, and it was just so fantastic! When I first started reading it, I was worried that it would be a bit too nightmarish for me based on the opening scene, but, while there are some scary scenes, I didn’t find it too over-the-top, and the focus was definitely more on the story and the mystery. I’m completely blown away by how the book ended so differently than it began, and I’m a huge fan of how the author, Marisha Pessl, writes. I’m looking forward to reading her other book in the future..

Writing nothing. We have declared today an unabashedly lazy day in the Abernathy apartment full of naps, reading, and YouTube video and TV watching. I should probably do some loads of laundry though….

Hoping to feel rested after today. My body clock is pretty confused, but I was able to sleep well last night and hope that continues into tonight and tomorrow.

Wearing sweats and a t-shirt

Loving the pictures from our trip. I took all of my pictures on my phone (the iPhone 5s has a great camera). My phone was stolen on the train in Paris, so we lost our pictures from that one day, but thanks to iCloud, all of my other pictures were backed up on my iPad. Daniel took over the picture-taking after that. We had insurance on my phone (I already have my new one), so my main worry as soon as I realized my phone was gone was that I wouldn’t ever see any of my pictures again. I am so much more grateful for these pictures now!

Wanting lunch! It’s a mac & cheese and soup kind of day since we haven’t gone to the grocery store yet.

Needing to figure out how to get back into the real world. I have been living in a dream for nearly two weeks!

Feeling very grateful and very tired

Clicking Bloglovin’, YouTube, Hulu, Instagram, Goodreads. Basically, catching up on all things TV and social media.

Believe it or not, we are packing right back up and heading to Charleston, SC with our great friends Kaitlin and Erik on Thursday night for Memorial Day weekend. I love Charleston,and I’m so excited to explore it with Daniel and our friends! Have a beautiful Sunday!

This post is for the blog link up on siddathornton. Share yours and link it up!

Three years ago today, I married my high school sweetheart. I haven’t written a whole lot about marriage on the blog – mostly because I feel like we just got married and have so much to learn ourselves before we can offer any great marriage advice. I take that back – Daniel shared at a recent brunch with friends that one thing he has learned about marriage is not to hate vacuuming. That was pretty life-changing for our marriage. :)

I also have never shared pictures of our wedding day on the blog. I thought today would be a good time to share a glimpse into our big day. It was a special one, that’s for sure. We were surrounded by so many loved family and friends as we said “I do” and prayed and laughed and danced.

Through all of the good and the not-so-good, we are so happy figuring out how to be grown-ups together, learning how to live out our faith together, and traveling the world together at any chance we get. I just love my best friend….